


Getting Priorities In Order

by toficornottofic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 18:33:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9561590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toficornottofic/pseuds/toficornottofic
Summary: Narcissa can't understand why her sister would leave.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [etoilecourageuse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilecourageuse/gifts).



"You're going to leave us." All of the matter-of-factness in the world couldn’t have hidden the hurt in Narcissa’s voice.

Andromeda sighed and focused on her packing. If she looked only at what she was putting into her trunk she couldn’t glance up and see the wounded look in her sister’s eyes. “Yes.”

“Mother won’t forgive you, you know.”

“I know.”

“Or Bellatrix.”

“Yes,” Andromeda agreed. Bellatrix had already visited; had ranted and raved and threatened. It was like Bellatrix to rage in a crisis, just as it was normal for Andromeda to hunker down and let the storm roll over until they reached the other side.

Except, this time perhaps, there might be no other side.

“ _ I  _ might not forgive you.” 

“Won’t you?” Andromeda’s tone was still calm but she glanced up now, searching her younger sister’s face for the truth.

“Well.” Narcissa wavered. “I might.”

Andromeda nodded, as though she had always suspected as much, and went back to packing. 

“Why are you even  _ doing _ that?” Narcissa’s voice rose now, infuriated by the lack of reaction as much as anything. “Just let the house-elves do it, and talk to me! Don’t you even  _ care?” _

“Would you put it past Mother to have ordered them to leave something out so I had to come back?” Andromeda asked reflectively, picking up a stack of night-gowns. “Because I wouldn’t.”

“You make her sound awful.” Now the tears were threatening. “You don’t even  _ like  _ any of us anymore. I wonder you waited so long to leave.”

Andromeda sighed. “Loving people doesn’t mean not knowing how they work.  _ Think,  _ Cissy. You’re old enough now to start anticipating actions. If you can’t do that, people are going to keep using you whether they’re on your side or not.”

“You can’t go around expecting family to use you!”

“ _ You  _ don’t,” Andromeda agreed. “And that’s why Bellatrix sent you up to stop me leaving. Didn’t she?”

Narcissa stared at her a minute, lip trembling. Andromeda sighed. “It’s not a bad thing as such,” she said kindly. “Everyone does it, more or less. Mother would do it because it would mean I’d have to come back without her lowering herself to ask me to. I understand  _ why  _ but you see, I don’t want to come back. Not if you’re all going to try stopping me from leaving again.”

“But  _ why?”  _ Narcissa blurted. “He’s just such an ordinary man. And he goes against everything this family stands for!”

“I think when you love someone enough, it goes further that which side you’re on,” Andromeda said quietly. “And if other people don’t understand that, that’s over to them.”

Later, when Narcissa met Lucius, she wondered sometimes if she would have loved him no matter which side he was on. It wasn’t until her choice came down to betraying Voldemort or helping those who had hurt her husband and child that she knew the answer.


End file.
